MC1492954 - Microsoft Outlook: Themes by Copilot retirement
Microsoft 365 Message Center announcement MC1492954.
MS Message Center's Summary
Microsoft is retiring Themes by Copilot in Microsoft Outlook worldwide between mid October 2026 and late October 2026. Licensed users will lose the option to select these generative themes, while existing applied themes will remain until manually changed. Administrators should communicate this upcoming retirement to affected staff members to manage user expectations.
- Administrator impact
- No direct administrator action is required.
- End user impact
- Licensed users will lose the ability to apply or return to Copilot generated themes once changed.
- Importance
- 2/10: This is a planned feature retirement with low administrative impact and no technical risk.
Microsoft Summary
Themes by Copilot in Microsoft Outlook will be retired worldwide from mid- to late October 2026. Users with a Copilot license will lose the ability to select or revert to these themes, though current themes remain until changed. No action is required.
- Message Center ID
- MC1492954
- Category
- plan For Change
- Severity
- normal
- Services
- Exchange Online
- Tags
- User impact, Admin impact, Retirement
- Published
- 2026-10-09
- Last updated
- 2026-10-09
- Expires
- 2026-11-27
[What and why] We are retiring Themes by Copilot in Microsoft Outlook. Themes by Copilot currently allows users with a Copilot license to create and apply a Copilot-generated theme in Settings. As part of this change, Themes by Copilot will be removed from Settings, and users will no longer be able to select or return to a Theme by Copilot after changing to a different theme. [Rollout schedule] General Availability (Worldwide): Retirement begins in mid-October 2026 and is expected to complete by late October 2026. [Impact on your organization] Who is affected Users with a Copilot license. Platforms and services New Outlook for Windows Outlook for Android Outlook for iOS Outlook for Mac Outlook on the web What will happen Themes by Copilot will be removed from Settings. Users who are currently using a Theme by Copilot will retain their current theme until they change it. Themes by Copilot configured to automatically refresh will remain applied but will stop refreshing. Users will retain the current theme imagery until they change their theme. Users can change from their existing Theme by Copilot to a non-Copilot theme but cannot return to a Theme by Copilot after doing so. [Action required and recommendations] No action is required.